Ionic liquid incorporated polymer electrolytes for supercapacitor application

Abstract

Recent advances in the study of ionic liquids based gel polymer electrolytes have been briefly reviewed in view of their electrochemical applications, particularly, their application as electrolytes in supercapacitors. The incorporation of ionic liquids in gel polymer electrolytes, instead of organic solvents like propylene carbonate, ethylene carbonate, etc., provide added effect in terms of their thermal, electrical and electrochemical stabilities. Recent studies on poly(ethylene oxide) based polymer electrolyte plasticized with ionic liquid and ionic liquid incorporated poly(vinylidene fluoride- co-hexafluoropropylene) based gel polymer electrolytes have been summarized. A special description has been given of supercapacitors (electrical double layer capacitors), studied in our laboratory, based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes, activated charcoal powder electrodes and optimized gel/polymer electrolytes. Comparative studies indicate that PVdF-HFP based gels are superior electrolytes to develop electrical double layers capacitors (in terms of higher capacitances and lower resistive values) over PEO based plasticized polymer electrolytes.